The present invention is directed to a printed circuit board multipack having internal gold fingers, formed from a printed circuit board multipack structure, and printed circuit boards made therefrom, and methods of manufacture thereof.
Currently, printed circuit boards are manufactured in multipacks, having a plurality of printed circuit boards formed occupying a single web of material of a printed circuit board substrate. For example, a plurality of rows of printed circuit board structures are provided occupying a web of material of a printed circuit board substrate (e.g., a single, integral web of reinforced plastic material).
In various types of printed circuit boards, gold fingers extend to an edge of the printed circuit board. With multipacks of such printed circuit boards having such gold fingers, the current state of the art requires that all gold fingers be designed along the periphery of the multipack. This is due to the present procedures to cut and bevel each printed circuit board. Currently, the multipacks are cut to size at the end of the printed circuit board manufacturing operation, and then bevelled using a fixed v-style blade or a single-sided routing machine that bevels one side at a time.
Types of boards which include gold fingers extending to an edge of the printed circuit board include cards that comply with the peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus specification, the latest version of which is xe2x80x9cPCI Local Bus Specification, Revision 2.1xe2x80x9d, set forth by the PCI Special Interest Group (SIG) on Jun. 1, 1995. Hereinafter, such cards in compliance with the PCI Local Bus Specification (that can be electrically connected to PCI busses complying with the PCI Bus Specification) are called PCI, or peripheral component interconnect, compliant cards. These peripheral component interconnect compliant cards have a bevelled edge to facilitate insertion (engagement) of the PCI compliant cards with slots therefor in, e.g., a modern computer system such as a server, workstation or personal computer. The specification for the bevelled edge of the PCI compliant card includes a bevelled edge length of 70/1000 inch and an angle of 20xc2x0 with respect to a line through the PCI compliant card and passing through the end of the bevel, and parallel to the major surfaces of the PCI compliant card.
Present printed circuit board multipacks, having the gold fingers extending to the periphery (that is, external gold fingers), have disadvantages. For example, the number of printed circuit boards which can be provided on a single web of material of the printed circuit board substrate is limited, in that the gold fingers must extend at the periphery of the web. Moreover, speed of manufacturing printed circuit boards, with such relatively limited number of printed circuit boards on a single web, is disadvantageously low. Due thereto, costs of manufacturing the printed circuit boards are relatively high.
The present invention, in various embodiments, includes a printed circuit board multipack. The multipack includes a web of material of a printed circuit board substrate, the web having a periphery. The multipack includes at least a first printed circuit board structure, including a first region of the web. The first printed circuit board structure has an internal edge spaced from the periphery of the web. The first printed circuit board structure includes electrically conductive fingers which extend in a direction toward the internal edge of the printed circuit board structure and terminate adjacent thereto.